


Playful

by Incyray



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Cute, Friendship, Gen, Heartless - Freeform, Heartless-centric, No Spoilers, Sora and co were searching for 'straggler' Heartless, idk what World they're in tbh, oneshot but it might be continued if people really like it, set after kh3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25478383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incyray/pseuds/Incyray
Summary: Sora's special power is making friends.Apparently, this extends even to the Heartless.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	Playful

Sora put out his arms to stop Donald and Goofy as he jolted to a halt. Up ahead, within the dead-end alley they’d headed down… were two soldier Heartless that hadn’t yet noticed the three of them. Most intriguing, however, was what the Heartless were doing. They were chasing each other around, and one of them even tackled its fellow soldier, and.. slapped its face back and forth a few times with its big clawed hands. Both Heartless were doing something unusual that Sora had never heard from a Heartless before, however; they were making small chirping sounds. 

Donald was the first to pose a question. “Are they… fighting each other?”

Curiously, the ‘aggressing’ Heartless stopped ‘attacking’ the one it’d pinned to the ground, stood up slowly, and then- reached back down to grasp the other’s hand. It then pulled, helping… it was helping the other Heartless get back onto its feet. Both of them chirped. 

Then, the ‘aggressor’ Heartless did a short hop in-place, made another soft chirp, and took off running. Its ‘victim’ briefly dropped into a combat stance of sorts, chirped, and then ran off after the other Heartless. Soon, they repeated what they’d done before, but with the roles reversed. 

Goofy’s face slowly, but abruptly lit up with understanding. He turned to Donald and Sora. “Guys, no, I think… I think they’re... _playing!”_

Sora and Donald looked at him with confusion, but then turned their attention back to the Heartless. 

The two soldiers were tumbling around, pouncing on each other and swatting at one another’s face and chest- but making those peculiar chirping sounds and helping one another get up after knocking them down. 

Then, creeping in from a deep shadow cast by a stack of boxes… was a high soldier! This Heartless, like the others, still did not seem to have noticed Sora, Donald and Goofy. Instead, the normally ferocious high soldier, with its extra jagged horned helmet and flame patterned outfit… approached the two regular soldiers. 

Briefly, the pair of Heartless stopped what they were doing to look at the newcomer. The high soldier… made one of those soft chirps, and the other two responded in kind. Then, in a way that seemed very uncharacteristic of a Heartless ordinarily described as being ‘extra angry’, the high soldier did that short hop, chirped, and took off running. The other soldiers broke into that flicker of a combat stance, chirped, and ran after it. 

All three of them were now mock-fighting together, making little chirps here and there in a way that.. seemed to suggest that they were reassuring one another that it was all just a game. 

Goofy nodded with a look of certainty on his face. “Sora, you know how puppies play by chasing and biting each other?”

Sora and Donald nodded. “Yeah,” Donald confirmed. 

Goofy nodded again. “It… looks a lot like those Heartless are doin’ that.”

Sora turned his head to stare at the trio of Heartless. They looked… strangely innocent. His eyes softened. How… how could he bring himself to slay these Heartless, when… when all they seemed to want to do at the moment was play with each other? 

“I… Donald, Goofy… I don’t think I can do it.” Sora stared at his friends with a forlorn expression. “They just wanna play… how could I kill them when they’re just playing around like that?”

Goofy’s eyes took on a look of softened worry, but Donald managed to retain some seriousness when he spoke. “Sora, they’re still Heartless. You have to slay them or their Hearts will never escape the Darkness!”

Sora turned his eyes to the floor with a heavy mask of disappointment on his face. This was so frustrating and… sad. But, then… then he had an idea. 

Steeling himself, Sora strode forward until he got close enough for the three soldiers to finally notice him. All three of them froze, staring straight at him whilst trapped in a freeze-frame of their games. The high soldier was the first to pull away from the knot, lowering into a crouch and glaring at the keyblade warrior. Its claws flexed and its whole body twitched in anticipation. 

Sora stopped about two meters away from the small pack of Heartless, stood straight, and… threw his keyblade as far away from himself and the Heartless as he could. It clattered loudly against the stone brick floor, skidding and scraping to a halt well out of its owner’s reach. The three Heartless stared after it intently, their big glowing eyes lingering on it for a long moment… before turning their heads in unison to look at Sora again. 

Donald and Goofy were watching all this unfold with looks of concern, although… they had an idea where it might be going. “Sora… _what are you doing?_ ”

Sora briefly tilted his head to look back at them. “Don’t worry, I’ve got.. an idea!”

Sora turned back to meeting the questioning stares of the three Heartless. He… tried to fake a chirp. The high soldier didn’t change its pose, but the two regular soldiers perked up a little. _It’s… it’s actually working!_

Sora crudely mimicked that little hop the Heartless had been doing, mimicked another chirp and then ran a short distance. He stopped, briefly, to look at the Heartless. The high soldier had tilted its head, and the other soldiers were getting extra twitchy. Sora did another hop and a chirp, and resumed running. This time, two sets of footsteps accompanied by the sound of scraping metal helmets answered his invitation. 

Just as Sora turned his head to see the response he’d gotten, one of the two soldiers leapt into the air and tackled him. They tumbled a bit, eventually settling with Sora on the ground and the soldier on top of him. 

The soldier… raised its big hands, its claws twitching and body shaking. It pulled one arm back, seeming to struggle with some aggressive urge. Then, it brought its hand down and swatted Sora back and forth across the face a few times. To Sora’s great surprise, however, the Heartless didn’t draw any blood or even nick his skin. It had… pulled its claws _back_ , hitting him only with the soft part of its fingers and palms. It was still a little rough, but… it hadn’t hurt too much. 

Then, the Heartless seemed to wait expectantly, staring down at Sora and… even making a small, strangled chirp. Realizing what it was waiting for him to do, Sora brought his hands up from his sides and… battered the soldier’s armored head in the best imitation of its own behavior he could manage. 

Gritting his teeth briefly, Sora hurriedly added in yet another fake chirp. The sound seemed to carry some sort of ‘I am friendly’ meaning, and Sora was deathly afraid the Heartless might misinterpret his attempt at its violent style of play.

In response, the soldier stepped off of him, and then grabbed ahold of one of Sora’s hands. It then took a few steps backwards, pulling him back onto his feet. Then, it let go, backed up a little bit, and then gave him a chirp and a hop before running off. The soldier… wanted Sora to chase after it, just like a puppy!

After quickly glancing around at Donald and Goofy- who were shaking their head and nodding approvingly, respectively- and at the other Heartless, Sora sprinted after the soldier. The high soldier, particularly, had been watching Sora and its fellow Heartless intently. It… almost seemed to be supervising them, like a watchful parent or perhaps an elder sibling. 

Eventually, though, as it observed Sora tumbling around play-fighting with the other two Heartless, the high soldier lost its composure and joined in. The high soldier hopped and chirped, and Sora and the other soldiers stopped what they were doing to answer its invitation to chase. 

It was so surreal, playing with a bunch of Heartless like they were big rowdy dogs. Yet, here Sora was… _doing that_. They were rough, certainly- the Heartless were indeed quite rowdy creatures, who’s concept of play involved lots of pouncing and tackling and kicking and ‘clawing’. However, like playful cats, they never actually used their claws. None of it was _real_ fighting, just… unexpectedly friendly sparring. 

Donald stood with his arms folded as he watched Sora and the Heartless play. He was trying to maintain an outward air of disapproval, yet… even as Sora was getting jumped on top of and chased and ‘attacked’... he found himself struggling to shake the slowly growing understanding that this trio of Heartless really did just want to _play_.

Goofy, on the other hand, was watching with a much warmer expression which almost suggested that he was silently tempted to join in. Perhaps, it seemed, some deep and ancient canid instinct in him understood the Heartless’s game perfectly.

Eventually, however- and it took quite the while for it to happen- Sora began to tire. The Heartless were nothing more than ‘living’ Darkness, and had no need for rest or sleep. They could, in theory, keep up with their games indefinitely. Sora, of course, was human- and after enough scampering around and rough housing, exhaustion started to claim him.

The Heartless, of course, had no concept of this- other than, perhaps, the sort of exhaustion which overtook them when they were direly injured. As Sora kept taking longer and more frequent pauses to catch his breath, his movements growing sluggish… the soldiers started hesitating. 

Just as Sora was about to try and see if he could tell them to stop- the high soldier caught him by the shoulders just as he started to stoop forward a bit to pant. Whilst Sora stared into its empty eyes in confusion, it held him there- and then tilted its head this way and that, seeming to look him over.

Sora narrowed his eyes in pondering. “Wha- what’s the matter?”

The high soldier, not quite understanding Sora’s words, pushed against his shoulders and forced him to sit down. Behind it, the other two soldiers scampered over to watch with twitchy movements that almost seemed indicative of anxiety.

The high soldier crouched in front of Sora, who stared at it in confusion. Then, it hunched over, _coughed_ , and… apparently procured a perfectly intact potion bottle from within its insides. Sora struggled not to grimace, that was _disgusting_. The high soldier, however, brought its hand- and the potion it held- right up to Sora’s face.

Distantly, Sora could hear Donald shouting- “Oh, _did it just-_ oh, what does it think it is? A mother bird?!” Faintly, Goofy could be heard awkwardly chuckling in the background.

Sora cracked a very awkward and nervous smile as he observed the three soldiers crowding around him. The two regular ones were staying put in one place, but they were all wiggly- seemingly unable to keep still. The high soldier, meanwhile, chirped repeatedly, took hold of one of Sora’s hands, and then placed the potion into his fingers. Thankfully, _oh so thankfully_ , it bore no gross residues.

Sora tried to plead with it, at this point, even though he knew that it’d probably be futile. “I- I’m fine, really, I’m just tired, I don’t need this-”

The high soldier just kept chirping, increasingly loudly, staring intently at Sora and growing increasingly twitchy. 

Making an awful expression halfway between a grimace and a forced smile, Sora gave up. It just wanted to help him, though it didn’t quite seem to grasp that Sora was only tired, not injured. He… begrudgingly uncorked the potion bottle and held… _oh gosh, don’t think about where it’s been-_ the bottle up to his face. All three soldiers chirped at him, and Sora shut his eyes and forced himself to drink the potion. It thankfully, _oh. so. thankfully._ did not taste like whatever Heartless guts must taste like.

Sora struggled to hold any semblance of a straight face. “Thank.. you…”

The soldiers backed off somewhat, after that, and then paused- watching and waiting and fidgeting. With a sigh, Sora slowly rose up onto his feet. Immediately, all three Heartless hopped and chirped with… Sora was beginning to recognize it as excitement. They thought he was ready to play again.

With a desperate expression, Sora turned his head to look back at Donald and Goofy. “Guys, what do I do? I can’t do this _all day!_ But I can’t just leave a bunch of Heartless to just.. _Do as Heartless do,_ either!”

Both Donald and Goofy remained silent, their expressions contorting softly with worry. Realistically, they should probably just kill the Heartless, as they always had. And yet, not one of them wanted to be the one to suggest that. After having just _played with them,_ after the three Heartless had gotten.. _worried_ of all things when Sora got tired, and the high soldier had tried its best to help him… slaying them would feel like a cruel betrayal.

As he glanced back and forth between waiting for Donald and Goofy to provide some sort of helpful wisdom, and the three soldiers- hopping and chirping and trying to get him to chase after them again- Sora drifted deep into thought. _There had to be another way_ … _Surely, surely something…_

And then, it dawned on him. Sora’s eyes followed the twitchy, fidgety, _playful_ movements of the three Heartless. “What if we just… keep them?”

Donald made a flat, disbelieving statement, which Goofy echoed. “ _What?!”_

Sora shrugged, but looked them in the eyes. “You know, like adopting a pet! Pets. There’s three of them.”

Donald crossed his arms and Goofy grit his teeth, glancing nervously off to the side.

Sora had gotten determined, though, and he put his hands on his hips to make that fact known. “It’s not like there’s a lot of Heartless left running around anyway. And they…”

One of the soldiers approached Sora, with a posture that made it look a little bit like a curious animal. It looked up at him, tilting its head and causing the metal of its helmet to make that familiar scraping sound as the two halves shifted.

Sora nodded with a stern expression of certainty. “If they’re clever enough to understand what it meant when I threw aside my keyblade, and when I copied their hops and chirps, and heck even to try and give me a potion- then surely they’re clever enough to be trained!”


End file.
